Technology & Apps

What gets measured gets done.

There is power in these words.

As a perfectionist driven to improve my life and others lives to the best of my ability, and with an engineering eye and high standards for useability, I drive my wife a bit crazy sometimes. But I also make a great reviewer of products and services, because I care. A lot.

Check back here soon, I’ll be sharing some of gems of values and usefulness I’ve discovered through thousands of hours of research, trial and error. It’s all about the right leverage applied at the right time.

INTERVAL TIMERS

Intervals are one of the most useful ways to structure training. They are indispensable for stamina, cardio, and metabolic conditioning in general. You want an interval timer that is easy to program, and that is read from a distance while you’re exercising. Here are my favorites, both for web and for smartphones.

Screenshot of the web app version (not accessible from mobile browsers)

This is the same interval timer I’ve loved for its simplicity and ease of use when I used to have an iPhone. It beats the pants off its competitors in its clean visual layout. It has a +/- button for quick adjustments in one-second increments; initially I thought this was the only way to adjust the intervals, but this is just a weakness of the user interface. By clicking the large + sign on the top navigation (next to SOUND: ON setting), you can enter the intervals numerically, and also name and save up to 100 presets – and all this for free!

Bottom line: This is a great free app, easy to use and visually appealing. For simple intervals, I haven’t seen better. I can also recommend the iOS version based on my previous experience, and suspect that the Android app would be a good bet too.